Opening Up
by RobinxRaven writer
Summary: DCAU. Damian may not have been willing to join the Titans at first, but Raven was definitely making the process easier than it could have been otherwise.
1. Ice Cream

Damian lay on his back in bed, lost in thoughts of his childhood home. The palace had been situated perfectly in the mountains; at the end of paths that were difficult to navigate, low enough to allow food to grow (and for helicopters to fly up, unfortunately), and cold. Very cold. It was common for snow to cover the training grounds and build up during winter. Which was more than he could say for Titans Tower.

Granted, it was summer not winter, so snow was not to be expected. The heat _was_ expected, however, and properly handled. Air conditioning was a marvel Damian hadn't experienced during his time growing up with the League of Shadows. And it was something that had unfortunately been taken away from him.

Jaime's scarab had gone wild (again) during training, this time knocking out the power to the Tower. The backup generator should've kicked on after just a few minutes, but it hadn't. After the team bumbled their way through the darkness to the basement, Kori tried working on the generators to get them to work, but ultimately wound up calling Cyborg, who had helped build the generators and most of Titans Tower alongside STAR Labs.

Then, the team was dismissed for the day, free to do what they wanted until the Tower came back online.

Free to do whatever they wanted in the most oppressive heat wave to hit Jump City in 20 years. While Kori and Cyborg worked, Garfield and Jaime went into town to have fun. "Fun" was not a word in Damian's vocabulary, so he had abstained from going, but going on patrol was out of the question, too. It had been 111 degrees for the past five days, and though the heat might've driven most regular criminals to act, even _they_ had limits and would rather wait for it to cool down before going out. And those that did act would be apprehended by the police before Damian had a chance to get there.

"Damian? You in there?" Raven's voice came from his doorway, where he'd pushed it into it's frame. He stood and walked over, and Raven asked, "How come you aren't wearing a shirt?"

"It's hot." He responded, as though it should've been obvious. All he had on was a pair of shorts.

"I noticed." She said. Damian took in her appearance; she was wearing a simple short sleeve button up blouse and modest skirt. Despite the change to more comfortable, casual clothes, her face was still a little red and their was a few beads of rolling down from her head. "Get dressed, in regular clothes. I have an idea."

After taking a moment to consider it, Damian decided that whatever Raven had in mind would be better than melting in his room until the AC could come back on. After throwing on a loose shirt and putting his boots on, Damian grabbed his utility belt and clipped it on, pulling his shirt over it. Raven rolled her eyes, and Damian asked, "What? Prepa-"

"Preparedness is a prerequisite for victory, I know." Raven said. "C'mon." She and Damian took the stairs down to the first floor, and headed outside. Raven lead the way to the garage, and started to punch in the security code before she remembered that the power was out. With an "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos", the car was pulled gently through a portal outside.

"I'll drive."

"No."

"I can-"

"I know you can, but Kori gave me permission to drive." Raven said, opening the driver's door and getting in. When Damian got into the passenger seat beside her, Raven smirked and said, "Besides, I'm the one with the learners permit."

Damian scoffed. When Raven started the car, he turned the AC up to full blast, and both exhaled happily as the cold air washed over them. As they drove into the city, Damian said, "Why do you have a license? You can fly. And so can Kori. Travelling by vehicle seems a little redundant."

"Because it helps us blend in, for one thing. It would cause a scene if Kori and I just descended from the sky everytime we wanted to go out in public. Most people don't look twice if we travel by car. And we can't fly if our powers are drained. Kori's powers aren't easily diminished, so she can fly longer than I can, but she can still run out of juice if she fights long enough." Raven told him, flipping the blinker and looking over her shoulder to make sure she was clear to switch lanes.

"So where are we headed?" Damian asked, resting his head on his hand.

"We're almost there." Raven said. Though it wasn't as satisfactory an answer as Damian would've liked, it was the truth. They were only a few minutes from the destination Raven was taking them to.

Once Raven had found a parking spot, she and Damian got of the car and started walking. The heat made itself present immediately, and Damian could feel the sweat forming on his brow not long after they got out of the car.

"An ice cream parlor?" Damian asked as they stopped in front of the small, nondescript two story building.

"It beats the public swimming pool." Raven said. She opened the door and a bell rang, and the first thing both she and Damian noticed was the cool air coming from inside.

Looking around the interior, he saw that the floor was mostly white, with black diamonds placed evenly throughout. There were three ceiling fans placed equal spaces apart, and all were turning at the same speed. There were several booths along the window, allowing view out to the street, with maroon cushioning complementing the dark wood it was built into. In the far back corner, there was a booth that was designed for larger families. Between the booths and the counter, tables for up to four people were waiting to be used.

Considering the heat, Damian expected it to be filled with more people, but the building was small, and it was in the center of the block. It wasn't exactly advertising its product, either. The only thing that gave away this building was an ice cream store was the artwork on the window, which wasn't easy to see with the glare coming from the sun.

"Welcome! What can I get you two?" An older gentleman had appeared behind the counter when the bell rang.

Raven nudged Damian's arm, indicated she wanted him to go first. He approached the counter, looking through the guard glass at the various dessert items on display. Multiple types of frozen dairy and topping products stood before him, and Damian let out an intelligent, "Uh…"

The man chuckled at his indecision, and Damian frowned at him. Damian had never been a big fan of sweets, due in no small part to being deprived of them for his childhood before the fall of the League, and because the last time Grayson had given him a bunch of candy he'd gotten a headache and nearly threw it all back up.

"One scoop of vanilla." Damian said.

"What else?" The man asked.

"That's it."

"Any toppings?"

"No."

"Hee-hee-hee!" The man sounded absolutely tickled at Damian's choice, but Damian wasn't sure why it was funny. "Alright, one scoop of vanilla is going to be two fifty-seven."

Damian reached into his back pocket, but realized he left his wallet back on the nightstand in his room. "Crap." He mumbled. Turning to Raven, he asked, "Can you spot me? I'll repay you when we get back home."

"Don't worry about it." Raven said. _"He brings his utility belt, but not his wallet."_

Damian nodded and took his dessert bowl when the man handed it to him, then walked over to a booth and sat down. He picked up the spoon and took a small bite of his ice cream. _"Credit where credit is due: She did have a good idea."_ He thought as the cold treat and air conditioning helped cool him off. Raven sat down in front of him, placing her bowl on the table, and Damian's hand stopped halfway to his mouth. "You know, with the cotton candy, cake, and… whatever _that_ is, you'll get diabetes." He said, raising an eyebrow in concern.

Raven had gotten a scoop of chocolate, a scoop of strawberry, a half scoop of both, as well as sprinkles, nuts and crushed M&M's on top of it all.

"Are you going to have enough room for dinner?" Damian asked as she took a bite.

"Of course I will." Raven said. "It's just sugar; it'll be gone in a few hours." She took another bite, smiling slightly at the pleasant taste.

Damian shrugged, looking down at his dessert and picking up another spoonful.

Raven paused when she heard the steady clinking across from her. "You should pace yourself, or else you'll get-"

"Ah!"

"A brainfreeze." She finished, then laughed as Damian clutched his head. "Hey, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth!" She instructed. He must've done what she said, because a few moments later he let go of his head and glared at the bowl in front of him.

He pushed it towards her and said, "You can have the rest."

His pocket buzzed, and he and Raven pulled out their phones. There was a message from Kori which read, _"Good news, the power's back on!"_ Damian didn't respond, but messages from Jaime, Garfield, and Raven appeared in the group chat as well, all praising her.

"Finally, they've been at it since this morning." Damian muttered.

Raven still heard him and said, "I didn't see you helping."

"I offered, remember?" Damian told her. "But Kori said, _"Cyborg's hardware is too complicated and delicate."_ I'm sure."

Raven sighed, shaking her head and going back to eating her ice cream.

Damian frowned and leaned back, looking at the counter. He felt regretful; he should've been more amicable after Raven had brought him here _and_ paid for his food. "She was probably right. Father tells me that he requires Cyborg's assistance often when they're on missions together."

Raven didn't look up, but she did smile, which made Damian feel a little bit better.

Once Raven had finished eating, they got in the car and headed back to the Tower. After they parked the car and walked inside and got in the elevator, Raven said, "Well, today was pleasant."

Damian turned to her, but she was looking straight ahead with a small smile on her face. "I suppose it was nice to do something different." He agreed. Raven turned and nodded, and the doors opened and he stepped out. "I'm going to the training room." He said when Raven gave him a quizzical look. "Ice cream is fattening."

Raven shook her head, and it looked like she was trying not to smile. "Right. See you at dinner." She said, pressing the button for the 17th floor so she could head to her room.

Before the doors closed, Damian said, "See you later."


	2. Cloud Watching and Cookouts

A few weeks later, it had finally cooled down enough to make going outside _not_ a chore. In fact, it was an incredibly pleasant day, which was why Damian had decided to practice in the grounds instead of in the training room. There were certainly more advantages to training inside, but the cool breeze and partly cloudy but always sunny blue skies deserved to be experienced. So after donning his Robin uniform and tying his sword to his waist, he headed outside.

The island that was home to Titans Tower was larger than most people might think; large enough for dozens of trees to spend years growing. But despite the number of trees growing, there was a small clearing about 25 feet in diameter that was hidden from the upper floors of the Tower due to the way island sloped. At ground level, it was also hard to spot because the other trees would obscure it somewhat. However, it did have a great view of the ocean.

As he pushed aside branches and stepped into the clearing, he suddenly remembered that he was the most recent addition to the Titans, and that others had been here before him (not that he ever really _forgot_ about the other Titans, he just didn't think of them as often as he probably should have).

Raven was laying down in the center of the clearing, with her hands folded on top of her stomach. At first, he thought she may have been napping, but then her head tilted slightly and they made eye contact. This was unprecedented. He hadn't been expecting his favourite outdoor training spot to be taken, so after a moment's thought, Damian turned on his heel and started to leave. There were other places outside he could practice, so forcing Raven out of this (his) spot seemed a little unnecessary.

"Damian." He turned to face her when she called out to him, and saw that she had propped herself up on her elbows. "Do you need something?" She asked.

He shook his head, taking a few steps into the clearing. "I like to practice here." He said simply, knowing Raven would be able to put two and two together without him needing to spell it out.

She nodded. "Yeah, it is a nice place to be when the weather is nice." She said as she lay back down, putting her hands behind her head.

Not sure how to follow up, Damian said, "Well, I'll leave you to it." Then turned to leave again. Before he could take more than two steps, however, he heard Raven giggle. He turned around, but she had her eyes closed. "What?"

"Nothing. I just thought that you could practice relaxing instead of fighting." She said. Raven didn't look at him, but she could still feel him nearby, and she felt indecision in his emotions. When she heard his footsteps carrying him near to her, she opened her eyes just in time to see him taking his mask off and laying down a few feet from her.

And not two minutes later, Damian asked, "Is it always this boring?"

Raven laughed quietly, turning to look at Damian. "Nothing wrong with relaxing a little. But if you want something to do…" She looked back up at the sky, "See that cloud?" She raised her hand and pointed. "It looks like a duck, don't you think?"

"Hmm. Looks more like a cloud to me." Raven laughed again at his response. "But that cloud," Damian pointed to a different one, "Resembles a marshmallow."

"That's true of most clouds, I think." She said. He'd somehow picked the most square shaped cloud in the sky. "But I can see it. How about that one? What do you see there?" Raven asked.

"Mmm… A reptile." He answered. "Though the cloud lacks any definitive shape to infer exactly which type of reptile it is."

"It's a cloud Damian; of course it lacks any definitive shape."

He turned to look at her, and saw that she was smiling. He frowned, not sure what was so funny, but looked back up at the sky. A few birds flew across his vision, too high above them to be made out. _"Probably seagulls."_ He decided. "That cloud there looks like a person."

Raven titled her head to see the cloud he pointed too. "Yeah, it does. But it looks… sad." A cloud should not have the ability to look depressed, but the cloud Damian had pointed to certainly did.

"Maybe the cloud will cry on us. California has been going through a drought these past few months." Damian said. "Of course, with the recent heat wave it's no wonder there hasn't been any rain. I'm glad fall is on the way."

~What Sounds Like Fun?~

"Damian? Damian, wake up."

"...ngg...mmm…" Was his response. He opened his eyes, and saw that the sky had turned from blue to orange, with only the brightest stars showing up in the sky before it got dark out. "Hmm?" Raven was kneeling beside him, a hand gently shaking his shoulder. "What happened?"

"I guess we fell asleep." Raven said. She wasn't sure when, but at some point they had stopped talking about clouds and lapsed into a comfortable silence, and at some point after that the comfortable weather and company had pushed them into a light slumber. "C'mon, I'm sure the others are probably wondering where we are."

Damian yawned and sat up, stretching his arms over his head. He stood and brushed off his cape and legs before following Raven along the path back to the tower. They saw Jaime and Garfield in the patio area behind the tower, and Garfield was holding a few plastic bags in his hands. "There you are!" He called out to Damian and Raven when he noticed them. "Where were you guys?"

"Relaxing." Raven said with a shrug. "What's up?"

"We're having a cookout!" Jaime said. They turned to look at him, and it was then that Damian noticed the grill he was tending to. "Hope you two are okay with hamburgers and hot dogs; we had to go to the store without you." He said, slightly apologetically.

"Is that all you got?" Damian asked with a raised brow.

"Of course not." Beastboy said. "Kori is in the kitchen making sides."

Raven looked up at the Tower. "I'll go help her out." She said, opening up a portal and stepping through.

"See ya in a bit!" Garfield said with a slight wave. "Alright Dame, let's set the table."

He and Garfield put out plastic plates, forks, knives, and napkins on the stone table in front of them. As Jaime lit the grill and put the various meats on to cook, Damian narrowed his eyes and asked, "Did you buy expired food?"

Jaime looked down, then laughed. "No, that-" He pointed to the discoloured food, "-is tofu for Garfield." He reached into one of the bags and pulled out an empty box with the words _"Senor Tofu"_ printed on it to show it to Damian.

Garfield just shrugged when Damian looked at him. "What can I say? I'm not into cannibalism." He transformed into a cow. "I've been all the meats you guys are eating."

"There's no meat in hot dogs."

"Gross dude!" Jaime said with a laugh. "Don't remind me that hot dogs aren't healthy."

The three continued to joke as Jaime kept an eye on the grill, rotating the hot dogs and flipping the hamburger patties. Garfield pulled out a radio and turned it on, putting it on the mix station. He grabbed a soda and tossed one to Jaime and another to Damian, then said, "Cheers!"

They opened the cans and drank in unison, then sat down.

The main course had finished cooking at almost the same time Kori and Raven brought down the sides, which consisted of corn on the cob, chili for the hot dogs, baked potatoes, beans and smoked sausage (which in Damian's opinion could've been a main dish on its own), stuffed bell peppers wrapped in bacon, different types of potato chips, and various toppings and dressings for the burgers and hot dogs.

Kori made sure everyone got an adequate amount of food, and they all sat down and began eating. "So, Damian…" Kori said after swallowing a bite of her dinner, "How was your training today?"

He stopped mid-chew, looking up and glancing around the table. He'd completely forgotten about his original goal when he left the Tower earlier today. After swallowing the food he was currently chewing, he cleared his throat and said, "Well, I…" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raven staring at him. "Enjoyed myself." He said, admitting the truth whilst intentionally being vague. His instincts were telling him to keep quiet about being with Raven, but upon reflection he wasn't sure why.

"Good. And what did you do today Jaime?" Kori asked.

"Oh, nothing much. Training, exercising, relaxing… you know, just the normal, boring stuff." He answered. What he'd done today hadn't been any different from any other day.

"Well, while _you_ were being boring, I was getting a sponsorship with Green Bull!" Beastboy announced. He held up his phone, where he'd taken a selfie of himself at the studio. "So now, I get a 5% cut of all the companies profits!"

"Awesome!" Jaime gave him a high five.

"Is that how that works?" Raven mumbled as she frowned at her food.

"Congratulations." Damian said.

"And what did you do today, Raven?" Kori asked.

"Meditated, took a nap, watched the clouds… Helped you prepare- oh crap!" Raven suddenly teleported away, leaving behind a very confused group of people.

"Oh…" Kori frowned. "I forgot we put a few pies in the oven for dessert."

"Noooo!" Beastboy and Jaime fell over in despair.

Raven returned, staring down at the ground. "Unfortunately…"

"Oh, don't tell me." Beastboy said.

She looked up and smirked. "The pies need to bake just a little bit longer."


	3. The Movies

Damian got of the car and closed the door, walking behind Jaime up to the movie theatre's entrance.

Thursday, it seemed, was going to be "mandatory fun night" every week. At first Damian had wondered what the point was, but Kori pointed out that aside from training and the few times they shared meals, the Titans didn't really "hang out" and that the point was to get along outside of missions. She was telling the truth, Damian realized. He'd only seen Garfield and Jaime hanging out, and occasionally he saw Raven and Kori making small talk in the kitchen, but beyond that…

"Alright everyone, I'll get the tickets, you guys get the snacks." Kori said, before walking off.

"Hey Raven? Couldn't you just teleport snacks and drinks to us?" Beastboy asked as they got in line.

Raven shook her head. "My teleportation portals glow, remember? Besides, smuggling in drinks from home defeats the movie-going experience." The line continued to move forward at a snail's pace, but several minutes later they arrived at the counter.

"Yo Damian, what size popcorn you getting?" Jaime turned around to face Damian.

"I appreciate the gesture, but I can get my own popcorn." Damian said.

Jaime shook his head. "No man, for beating Beastboy in the dance battle, remember?" He said before Damian could respond. "I promised you free popcorn."

"Dance Ba- Oh, right." Damian said. So much had happened that night that after battling demons, visiting Azarath, returning and fighting the possessed members of the Justice League, and then going halfway across the world, only to _then_ go to Hell and kill his grandfather, that he'd forgotten about the proposition Jaime had given them. "In that case, a large tub. And a cherry coke."

"Just the popcorn, dude." Jaime said with grin before turning around.

"Cheapskate."

"Uh, we're all paying with one card." Beastboy said. Jaime stiffened (which made Damian smirk), then ordered the cherry coke for Damian and the other snacks for Kori, Raven, and Beastboy, as well as himself.

The lobby was crowded, and they moved between families and groups of friends over to the "Butter Up!" station. After applying liberal amounts of butter, they moved through the crowds again to find Kori. There must've been some hot new movie showing, but Damian had no idea what film he and his teammates had come for, much less whatever popular films were being played.

They spotted Kori leaning against the wall, phone in one hand and tickets in the other. "Ready?" She asked, and everyone nodded. They walked over to the ticket taker, who directed them towards the auditorium where they'd be watching the movie.

They walked alongside other groups of people, and Damian realized that Garfield had suggested they watch the movie that _everyone_ had come to see. The theatre so was so packed that for a moment, the Titans stood still and looked around to see if there was five open seats so they could sit as a group.

"Oh, over the-" Kori raised her finger to point, but the seat she was pointing to got taken by a family of four. "Well… maybe we should split up?" She said. It didn't look like there were any other spots large enough to seat all of them, and the movie was going to start soon.

"We might as well." Jaime said. He took a spot near the stairs, and Garfield and Kori walked across the bottom row to the stairs on the opposite side of the room before ascending to a couple of empty seats a few rows beneath the center.

Damian looked up and saw that there was a couple of empty chairs in one of the corners in the at the top, and headed up. When he put his drink in the cupholder and sat down, he saw that Raven had followed him and taken the empty seat to his right. He raised a brow, and she just shrugged as she sat next to him. Damian shifted so he was more comfortable and whispered, "So what movie are we watching?"

Raven turned to him with a confused look on her face. "How did you get _all_ the way here without knowing?"

"Because I tend to tune out the white noise that comes out of Garfield."

Raven laughed quietly, then turned back to the screen. She leaned over and whispered, "It's some horror movie Gar's been going on about for the past month." She opened her Twizzler package and pulled a strand out, settling into silence as the lights dimmed and trailers started playing.

Damian idly munched on his popcorn as images flashed on screen before him. He wasn't a fan of movies in general, but if he had to pick a genre he'd pick oldies. Films from the golden age of Hollywood were certainly more interesting than the dreg that was released nowadays. The _were_ a few modern day films that he did enjoy, but the trailers for what he was seeing weren't selling him on anything.

The film started, and of course being a horror movie, it had to start with someone unrelated to the main cast getting killed by the antagonist before jumping to another scene. Damian continued to eat his popcorn, wondering how hard it would be to sneak out of the theatre so he could spend the next two hours doing something productive.

Well, he could always say he needed to use the bathroom, then leave. But since Raven had sat beside him, she would get suspicious and come looking for him. After a moment, he decided that leaving was out of the question. Perhaps closing his eyes and resting would be-

Ohp. Scratch that, too. This was going to be one of those scary movies that had lots of jumpscares and screaming and gross sound effects. Great. He couldn't rest, he couldn't leave, he couldn't even check his phone. With a sigh, he picked up his cup and took a drink.

After setting his popcorn bucket on the ground between his feet, he glanced to his right, then frowned.

Raven was sitting with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears, grimacing.

" _He took me to his hellish universe. I could hardly bear the horrors I saw there."_

What Raven had told them in Azarath suddenly ran through his head. He cursed Garfield for suggesting this idea, then cursed himself for not thinking about the way it might affect Raven. She never talked about her past, but that didn't mean it still didn't affect her. He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. She tensed, turning to look at him with a horrified look on her face. "Do you want to leave?" Damian mouthed.

She nodded once, almost imperceptibly.

Without another word, Damian stood and took her hand, pulling her past the people in their row and down the staircase, leading them out into the hallway. Raven exhaled when the doors closed behind them, shutting out the noise coming from the theatre. "Sorry." She mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and taking a few steps down the hall.

"Don't be." Damian said as he started after her. "I didn't care much for the movie, either."

She turned around to look at him, making eye contact, and was surprised to see the understanding look he was giving her. It wasn't about the movie, they both knew that, but Damian hadn't asked what was wrong or tried the ever popular, " _Are you okay?"_. He knew that she wasn't and then brought her to a place she would be more comfortable. She smiled slightly as a show of thanks. "Well, now what? We've got about an hour to kill."

They walked through the hallway, back to the lobby. Now that it was empty, it was eerily quiet. There was one person behind the refreshment counter, lazily scrolling through his phone.

Damian clicked his tongue. Most nearby places to hang out at were about to close, and the places that were still open were bars or nightclubs, which were not places either of them wanted to hang out at even if they had been of age. He tapped Raven's arm, and when she looked at him he pointed to the arcade games at the other side of the room.

~What Sounds Like Fun~

"Damian, Raven, what are you two doing out here?" Kori asked as she, Garfield, and Jaime walked into the lobby and saw the two playing air hockey.

"The movie was a drag." Raven said, just before Damian expertly bounced the puck off the walls and scored again. It was 2-5, his favour. "I can't believe you all sat through an hour and a half of… torture porn." She said with a frown, setting the puck on the table and starting the next round.

"Torture porn?!" Garfield exclaimed.

"C'mon Gar, she's right." Jaime said.

"It wasn't all blood and gore." Garfield tried defending. "There was that scene at the end, with the truck and the killer, and-"

"And how we got a slow mo shot of the killer exploding? I should've researched the movie more before we came here." Kori said with a sigh. She watched as Raven scored, once, then twice, then Damian scored twice in a row and won the game.

"My turn!" Beastboy said, walking over to the spot where Raven had left.

"We can play tomorrow. It's late." Damian said.

Garfield shrugged, then turned and walked with Jaime outside. "Did he just say _play_?" Garfield asked.

Jaime shrugged. "I think so." He turned around to see Raven bump into Damian, only to look away as though she hadn't seen him walking. Damian narrowed his eyes and bumped lightly into her. Raven turned to him and grinned, and Jaime turned to face forward before they caught him watching. "Weird."


	4. Training

Damian exhaled slowly as the holograms around him froze, then faded, felled by his sword. He took in a deep breath as more appeared, then raised his sword and dodged incoming attacks, throwing batarangs and backflipping over two of the projections. He blocked one swing, pushing the hologram back and slicing at another one coming up to attack him. The one he'd pushed back regained its balance and came at him, but Damian crouched and swept at its legs, bringing his sword up vertically and dealing the finishing blow by cutting through its chest.

A purple and black blur shot past him, and he turned to see a hologram behind him fall backwards and disappear like the rest. "You're getting slow." Damian turned to see Raven, with a hand raised and aimed behind him. She walked forward, stopping just a few feet shy of the training platform. "Mind if I join?"

"Go ahead." Damian said. "And I'm not getting slow." He raised his left hand, which had an open batarang in it. "I knew it was there." He exhaled again, taking a few deep breaths while she adjusted the training to account for her joining in. He picked up the batarangs that hadn't made it back to his hand and put them away, turning to see that Raven had floated up into the air a few feet.

She looked down at him, and wondered if he was going to say something, but several holograms appeared, and so they focused on fighting as the opportunity to ask passed by.

Raven flew through the air, avoiding projectiles from the enemies shooting at her on the ground. While Damian took care of them to make it easier for Raven to fly, she would shoot beams of shadow at enemies coming after Damian, protecting him until it finally, all the enemies firing at her had been defeated. Damian turned and slashed horizontally, erasing three of the holograms with a single swing. Raven descended beside him, and they took off in different directions, moving between the holograms and attacking until finally, they were the only two left standing.

Panting, Damian put his sword away and placed his hands on his knees as he bent over slightly. "You okay?" Raven asked as she walked over, turning off the training deck remotely with her magic.

"Yeah…" Damian said with a nod, "Just winded, is all."

"How long have you been at it?" Raven asked. As she got closer, she could see the beads of sweat rolling off him, and how red his face was.

"I don't know. I got back to the Tower around one, and it's," He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time, "Ten. So not long."

"Not long?!" She exclaimed.

Damian shrugged. "I trained for the same stretch of time when I was with the League." He said casually. "And I did more than just swing my sword back then, too. Stealth training, archery, firearms, computer hacking..." He listed off various other activities.

"Well, you aren't with the League anymore. You're with the Titans." Raven said. She placed a hand on his shoulder, frowning.

"Trust me, I'm more than well aware of where I am." Damian laughed, and it occurred to Raven that she'd never heard him laugh at something that he found _genuinely_ funny. When he did laugh, it was always at something that amused him, the same way an adult would laugh at a child's innocence outlook on life. Just for a second, she wondered what it would sound like if he laughed for real, at something that was actually funny.

"Then let's go." Raven said. She grabbed his arm and pulled him along with her as she walked to the exit.

As they made it into the hallway, Damian asked, "Where? Didn't you come here to exercise?"

Raven shook her head. "I came down here for you. I already logged four hours earlier while you were out on patrol." Damian tapped her hand, and she let go of his arm so he could walk beside her. "We had dinner without you." She said.

Damian looked at her, wondering why she looked lost so deep in thought. As they got in the elevator and headed up, he turned slightly so he was facing her and asked, "Is something wrong?" He briefly wondered if _he'd_ done something wrong, like skipped a meeting, but there was nothing planned, and the Titans were allowed to do what they wanted with their free time, be it training, going to patrol, or relaxing. Surely skipping a meal wasn't that big of a deal.

"No." Raven shook her head, keeping her eyes on the ground.

He pursed his lips and crossed his arms, blocking the way out of the elevator when the doors opened. The doors closed, and Raven raised an eyebrow. "You aren't a very good liar, you know." Damian said.

With a sigh, she said, "You know, you came here to be a part of a team, and there's more to teamwork than fighting battles and training together." She moved Damian to the side and pushed the open button, and started walking.

"Forgive me if my interests don't lie in playing video games or making awkward small talk over dinner." Damian muttered as he followed behind her.

"There's more to you than a fighter." Raven turned to look back at him, but when he didn't say anything she faced forward and continued walking. She knew Damian wasn't easy to get along with, but she tried, and the others did too. But it went both ways, and they wouldn't get anywhere with him if he was always on his own.

"Sorry."

Raven stopped and turned around, her eyes widening. "What?" She asked, not completely sure what she'd just heard.

Damian just kept walking, putting his hands behind and his head. "Nothing." He said. "What was for dinner?" He asked.

Raven caught up to him. "We ordered chinese food." She told him. "We saved you a fortune cookie." Damian turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "Garfield wanted to eat it since you weren't there."

"Well, maybe I should show up to dinner more often. Solely to protect my food, of course." Damian said as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing his dinner out of the fridge and putting it into the microwave.

"Right." Raven said, smiling and rolling her eyes as she walked into the next room, turning on the TV. A few moments later, Damian joined her on the couch, and they watched together in a comfortable silence.

~Experiences~

A/N

I changed the title because I felt that "What Sounds Like Fun?" implies every chapter has fluff or isn't serious, which isn't what I have planned. But I'm not a fan of "Experiences", either. My titles are never good, I feel.

Either way, if this chapter feels lacking, it's because I wanted to save some of the more "meaty" content for a later chapter (aka there will be more of Raven dealing with Damian's past in the future and I didn't want to put it in so early).

Thanks to everyone who is reviewing, favouriting, and following!


	5. Patrol

Damian moved swiftly across rooftops, grappling hook in hand. It had taken him a while to adjust to Jump City's urban layout; whereas Gotham's buildings were extremely close together, many of which were decaying or had decorative struts that his grappling hook could latch onto, Jump City's buildings were further apart and not easily compatible with his grappling hook. As he began patrolling the city, he was glad he had done so alone, because he'd never admit to falling and having to climb buildings since his grappling hook had failed him.

And so, going on patrol, he'd spent time learning where the air conditioning units, decorative struts, and rooftop air circulators were in the areas where he normally prowled, and once he'd memorized them he'd moved out, until after four months, he knew where each building that he could use his grappling hook on was located. Not that he didn't occasionally miss, but with quick reflexes he was able to save himself from becoming a stain on the pavement.

" _Of course, with_ her _here, I doubt I'd fall to my death anyway."_ He thought to himself as he looked over to Raven, who was frowning at him as she lowered him onto a nearby rooftop after his grappling hook had bounced off a corner instead of digging into the cement.

"You should be more careful." He expected her to say that. "Why do you jump on rooftops, anyway?" She descended so she was standing next to him.

"Because most criminals don't think to look up, so they don't see me coming." A pause. "Even if they're aware that their city is being patrolled by trained assassins, witches, aliens, and meta-humans." He realigned his grappling hook as he stepped to the edge of the roof, looking down into the alleyway between the two buildings. "Like these imbeciles." He said quietly, motioning for Raven to keep quiet and move next to him.

She stepped to the edge, looking down, where she saw a man wearing a grey hoodie and a large, burly, bald man talking. Despite being several stories above them, their voices echoed off the alley and revealed to the two Titans that a weapons deal was taking place. "What should we do?" Raven asked, turning to face Damian.

Since she'd found him about to leave the Tower earlier and asked if he was going on patrol, then offered to accompany him, that _technically_ made him the "boss", at least for this patrol.

"Can you tell how many people are in the building opposite us?"

Raven closed her eyes, and when she opened them they were glowing white. "I can sense seven… maybe eight in there." Her eyes returned to normal beneath the shadow of her hood.

He nodded. "Take care of these two. I'll meet you down below."

"Where are you going?" She watched him turn around take a couple of steps in the opposite direction. She got her answer when he turned on his heel and sprinted to the edge of the roof. She held out her hand, ready to call out to him, but he jumped over five feet into the air and through a window on the other building.

The two criminals below looked up when small glass shards rained down on them, and then gasped as they saw a shadow descending on them.

The term "C-Lister" didn't really apply to these guys. At least C-Lister implied they posed a passing threat. In a movie, they would've been nameless grunts that lost a fight to a comparatively overpowered superhero.

As it was, Raven didn't have to expend much energy to knock them unconscious. She set them upright against the wall, binding their hands and feet together with magic so they couldn't escape if they regained consciousness soon.

She crossed her arms over her chest as she listened to the sound of yelling, gunshots, batarangs twirling through the air, furniture breaking, and then finally, a victorious yell as Damian tackled a thug out of the second story window. Her surprise stopped her from using magic to cushion their fall in time, but they luckily landed on a pile of garbage that was on the floor of the alleyway.

Damian picked the guy up by the scruff of his collar and pushed him up against the wall. "Tell me, who do you work for?!" He set to work questioning the criminal, figuring out where their weapons came from, who bought them, who supplied them, and asking other questions to get as much information as possible.

It was almost scary watching him work, how efficiently he could gather info and leave the criminal shaking in his boots. After cuffing the criminal and putting him next to the two Raven had take care of, Damian walked to the door leading into the building to gather the criminals inside and leave them for the police.

"Alright, let's get going." He said once they'd dragged everyone outside and alerted the police. He pulled out his grappling hook and aimed it at the roof, where it fortunately hooked and pulled him up.

Raven ascended behind him, keeping him in the corner of her eye as they moved, ready to put a stop to any would-be car thieves, muggers, or robbers.

Even as they moved, it was hard not to notice how… _naturally_ Damian moved through the urban jungle. He wasn't an acrobat like Dick was, and he didn't have Jaime's Scarab or Garfield's animal instinct to help him instinctively know where to reach or where to jump, but it was far more relaxed and fluid than the way he moved around the Tower.

At the Tower, it seemed like he was always on his toes, with his shoulders tensed and his fingers twitching in anticipation to reach for his sword or gadget out of his utility belt. He was like that on assigned missions and on patrol, of course, but it seemed now that he was releasing all the pent up energy that he had at the Tower, and he could jump and sprint and fight all he pleased.

It pained Raven more than she cared to admit. When she had first come to the Tower, she'd been a little uneasy and uncomfortable too, but she'd been gradually gotten more comfortable and relaxed around the others. Damian had been with them for four months however, and he was still just as tense as he was when he'd first showed up, just as wary of his surroundings as he'd always been. He was still more comfortable in uniform and out on patrol than he was in casual clothes at the Tower.

"Damian."

He turned to look at her as they stopped on a low rooftop, tilting his head slightly to the side as she once again descended onto the roof beside him. She raised a hand, and a portal appeared next to them.

"Let's go home."

He hesitated for a moment, and she saw it. But he nodded regardless, putting his grappling hook away and walking through the portal, to the front entrance of Titans Tower. They had set out as the sun was setting, and the half-moon was above the city skyline in the distance. Raven stepped through next to him, pulling her hood down.

She walked behind Damian as he went up to the front doors, putting in the security code and holding the door open for her. They walked through the front entrance and got in the elevator, heading upstairs.

When Raven sighed beside him, and he turned and looked at her. "What is it?" He asked.

"Relax." She said, turning to face him fully.

He frowned, eyebrows knitting together. "Uh… I am."

She sighed again. "No, you aren't." She tapped his hands, and he unclenched them from the fists they were balled into. Then she placed both hands on his shoulders, and he noticeably stiffened at the contact. "You're safe here." She gave a light squeeze, and after a moment his arms relaxed. Then, she reached up and pulled off his mask, handing it to him so he could put it away. "We're your friends. You can trust us."

"I know that." He told her.

"So why are you always so uncomfortable here?"

He didn't get the chance to answer, because just then the elevator doors opened and revealed Jaime. "Oh, hey guys." He greeted sleepily. He rubbed one eye, scratching idly at his bare chest. "What're you doing up?"

"We were out on patrol. What are you doing?" Damian asked.

"Water." Jaime responded. He held up the empty glass in his left hand.

Damian nodded in understanding. "Well, goodnight Raven, goodnight Jaime." He walked past, sparing a glance at the beetle in Jaime's back, but not stopping his stride or glancing at Raven.

He knew that if he did, she would most likely follow him to try to get an answer out of him, and to be honest, he didn't have one. Raven probably knew what he was going to say, and he knew that she probably wouldn't like the answer, the way she didn't like most answers he gave her whenever she asked about his past or his personality.


	6. Rooftop Meeting and the New Arrival

It was really a coincidence that Damian saw Raven standing on the roof.

He didn't even know it was Raven until he got up to the roof. As he was driving back to the Tower, returning from patrol, he looked up at the Tower just as the clouds parted. He was too far down to see who was there, but the moonlight provided sufficient lighting and a silhouette to reveal that someone _was_ in fact there.

He was curious. It was midnight, and it was cold. Who was up on the roof, and why? After parking Dick's bike and taking the elevator to the top floor, he went to the stairwell and went up to the roof. Just as he put his hand on the doorknob, he thought, _"Wait, what if they're an intruder?"_ Followed by, _"Why am I just now thinking that?"_

Slowly, to avoid any possible creaking, he opened the door and stepped outside.

"Raven?" He called out once he got close enough to confirm it was her. "What are you doing?" She turned to face him, her hand coming up to grip her upper arm. She didn't answer at first, looking at the ground with a frown. He closed the distance between them so he was only a couple of feet from her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just…" She sighed, looking up at him and shrugging slightly. "My father won't shut up."

" _Oh."_

"It makes it hard to sleep sometimes. No matter how much I meditate." She turned around, taking a couple of steps away from him. "I just came up here for some fresh air."

Damian paused, looking at her back. "I…" He paused, and Raven turned back to face him. "It may not be worth much, but you have my sympathies."

Raven lips twitched slightly, pulling into a small smile. "Coming from you? Must be worth a lot."

Damian scoffed. "Not particularly. I'm sure you can get sympathy from anyone."

"Yes, but I'll bet _you_ don't give your sympathies to many people."

"Nor do I give my cape to many people, either." Damian allowed a smile at her confused expression. He took his cape off, holding it out to her. "You're shivering. Honestly, why didn't you grab a jacket before you came up here?"

Raven laughed, taking his cape and putting it around her shoulders. "Maybe it was all part of my grand plan."

"Oh really?" He asked.

"Yep." Raven sat down on the ground, her knees up to her chest so she could use his cape as a makeshift blanket. "To get you out of your uniform more often and into regular clothes."

Damian rolled his eyes sarcastically and said, "Well I hate to break it to you, but your plan has failed." He sat down beside her, taking his mask off and looking up at the sky.

"How so?"

"I'm still wearing the rest of my uniform, sans the cape." He patted his chest. "So, you've failed."

"Oh well. Baby steps." Raven said. She shifted so she was sitting right beside him, then rested her head on his shoulder. "Hmm…"

Damian glanced at her from the corner of his eye as she lay her head on him, then slowly put his arm around her, pulling her a little bit closer to him. Even though his cape was with her, leaving him unprotected from the biting cold wind, Raven was still sharing enough of her body heat for him to be comfortable.

Raven grimaced, enough for Damian to notice. "Nothing." She said when he looked at her. "He's shouting now."

"I thought your father was supposed to be an all-powerful, world conquering demon, not a child with a temper tantrum." Damian said with a smirk.

"The only difference between my father and children is that children are much easier to deal with." Raven muttered.

Though it was quite obviously laced with sarcasm, Damian picked up on the subtle anger and annoyance underneath her words. Ever since Talon had tricked him, he'd been working harder on reading between the lines during conversations, and it had certainly been helping. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked. Inwardly, he knew that there wasn't much he could do.

Once before, he asked why Raven didn't just teleport the crystal to the moon or throw it in the ocean. Surely that would be better than having to listen to her father whisper (or shout) in her ear 24/7. "I left my father locked in a crystal in an alternate dimension, trapped inside an obelisk with heavy seals on it, and he _still_ got free. What makes you think he wouldn't find another way to escape?" And that had been the end of that conversation.

Raven felt better where she could keep could keep her eye on him, no matter how much Damian disliked the trouble it caused for her.

"Well, you could try distracting me so I don't have to listen to my father piss and moan."

"How so?" Damian responded.

"Talk to me. Where'd you go today? What'd you do?" Raven asked.

"Well, you remember how we broke up that illegal weapons trade a couple of weeks ago?" Damian paused, letting the memory come back to her. When she said yes, he continued. "I've been following up on them, and I found out that they're connected to a larger crime circle. You know, drug imports, credit fraud, even kidnapping. I've been trying to figure out who's behind it all, but so far I've come up with nothing."

"Mm." She lifted her head up so she could look at him. "And that's it?"

"...Yes? I mean so far I've only been spying and I haven't made an actual move yet, so-"

"No, I mean, haven't you hung out with Jaime and Garfield recently?" She asked.

"Uh, no." His brow furrowed. "I don't see that's how relevant."

"Damian-"

"I know, I know!" He cut her off, knowing where she was going. "I'm supposed to get along with everyone, be a team player, all that." Raven didn't say anything, so he continued. "But… it's not so easy."

"Well _maybe_ if your idea of fun wasn't making everyone log twenty five extra patrol hours a week it would be easier!" Raven said with a grin, playfully shoving his shoulder. "Seriously, play some ping pong with Jaime, or go with Garfield to the mall or something. Kori likes to train if she's not busy, so you could probably get to know her like that."

"Jaime's beetle makes me nervous." He admitted.

Raven raised a brow. "But Jaime doesn't?"

"...Okay, but Garfield is just plain annoying."

Raven laughed. "He is, but he's also pretty easy going. I'm sure if you try and make the effort, he'll meet you halfway."

"And what about you?" Damian asked.

"We're already friends, Damian!" Raven said as she shook her head. "Besides, do I really need to tell you how to get along with me?"

Damian was about tell her that learning how to get along with her hadn't exactly been easy, but the west side of the island exploded, effectively stopped their conversation.

The two shot to their feet, and after they locked eyes and nodded, Raven tossed Damian back his cape. Not like they could sit back while their home was under attack. She snapped her fingers and her pajamas turned into her uniform. "C'mon!" They ran to the edge of the roof, and Raven grabbed Damian's hand and helped him to the ground level, then flew behind him as they headed to the edge of the island. Damian pulled out his phone and sent a fast text to the others. _"That wasn't an earthquake! Get out here!"_

"Ow…" Raven and Damian came to a stop a dozen feet from someone on their knees, clutching… her stomach, surrounded by the scattered remains of rocks. "Holding onto that one for so long hurt…" The blonde girl grumbled.

She didn't say much else, because Raven held out her hand, enveloping the girl in shadow and lifting her off the ground. "Who are you?" She asked, keeping her tone steady and dark. The girl grunted. "I asked, who are you?"

"Not… your… enemy…"

Kori, Garfield, and Beastboy descended from the sky as Raven let the girl go. "What's going on here?" Kori asked, raising her hand, ready to fire off starbolts. Jaime raised his right arm, which morphed into a cannon. Beastboy turned into a bear, growling.

"Sheesh, is this how you people say hello?" The girl stood with a groan.

"Keep your hands where we can see them." Damian said, keeping his own hand on his sword hilt. The girl frowned, but raised her hands so they were level with her head. "Now, tell us who you are and why you're here."

The girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. "My name is Terra Markov, and I came here because I heard you take in superpowered teens with nowhere to go. But after the warm welcome, I'm starting to reconsider."

Kori stepped forward, motioning for the others to stand down. "You have powers?"

Terra nodded. "I have geokinesis."

"You can move stuff with your mind?" Garfield asked, turning back to normal.

"No, I can move the _earth_ with my mind." She said. "I drove a boulder here, but…" She looked at the ground and kicked a stone away with her foot. "Well, it's a good thing I don't need insurance."

Kori and the others glanced between each other before looking back at Terra. "Is that… all you can tell us?" She asked.

Terra crossed her arms over chest. "Well… I've been travelling everywhere. The places I've been weren't exactly accepting of me. But then I heard about this place, so…" She shrugged. "Here I am."

Damian saw Kori and Raven glance at each other, and then Raven took a step forward. "If you need a place to stay, we have plenty of spare rooms. But it's going to take some time for you to become one of us."

Garfield stepped forward, ready to greet her, but Damian, Jaime, and Kori turned to look at Raven. "Are you sure about this?" Jaime asked.

Raven nodded. "She's telling the truth."

"How can you tell?" Damian asked.

"She's an empath, remember?" Kori said. "Besides, we don't have job applications for people to fill out. If she wants a home, she can have one. But I do agree with Raven; we need to know what she's fully capable of before we make her an official Titan."

Damian frowned. _"I don't like this."_ He looked over at Terra, who was trying to ignore Garfield's showing off via transforming into different animals.

"Alright, everyone." Kori sighed, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. "It's late. I'll help Terra set up a room, everyone go back to bed. We can talk more about this in the morning."

~Opening Up~

A/N

At the end of JLvTT, Terra's cameo is her riding a boulder to the shore of the island in the middle of the night. I thought, "What is she doing? She could show up at any other time and it would better." Anyways, I also wanted some time to pass between the end of the film and Terra's actual arrival, so I wrote that in here. I'm going to write around the canon, not contradict it (this scene doesn't count because you can argue that time _has_ passed), so here you go. Let me know what you think!


	7. Healing

_Alright everyone, it's time for today's training. Meet outside!_

Damian looked at the message from Kori that popped up along the top of his phone, temporarily obscuring the news article he was reading. With a slight roll of the eyes, he got up off his bed and changed into his uniform. As he exited his room, he saw Garfield stepping into the hallway and turned to wave at him.

"Yo Dame! How's it hanging?" He asked as he morphed into a bird and landed on Damian's shoulder.

"Dame?" He asked, eyeing the bird on his shoulder. At first, it had been a little off putting to have Garfield turn into different types of animals and… well… crawl on him- but he'd gotten used to it happening, if he still wasn't entirely okay with it happening. "Did we accidentally get sent back to the 50's?"

Garfield laughed as the two got into the elevator and Damian pushed the button. "That was a bad joke, man!"

"Then why did you laugh?" Damian asked. He recalled the other night when Raven had told him to try getting along with the others, and it had been easier than he thought it would be. Taking it one day at time seemed to be working best for him, and so far there hadn't really been any discourse within the Tower over the past few days.

"Because it was _so_ bad that it was funny. Why would I call you a slang term for a woman in the 1950's?"

The question had no answer, so Damian instead opted to say, "...Get off me!"

The doors opened, and Terra witnessed a trained assassin and a parakeet having a hilariously clumsy fight in the elevator. "I'll wait for the next one." She muttered, pushing the call button in the hopes that the door would close.

When the two noticed that someone was standing out in the hallway and cringing, they moved back and stopped fighting. Garfield morphed back to human form and laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck before trying to casually blame the ordeal on Damian.

For his part, Damian crossed his arms and moved back against the wall, keeping his eyes on Terra from behind the mask.

He didn't care what the other Titans said, he wasn't going to blindly trust her just because she was "in need of a home". Everything about her was suspicious; the state of her arrival, the fact that she'd rather have a room on a separate floor than the rest of them and even avoided eating with them (which made everyone raise an eyebrow, not just Damian), and the fact that everytime Damian seemed to look at her, she was glaring at him, as though he'd done something to personally offend her.

So as they exited the elevator and went outside to the training area behind the Tower (which was really nothing more than a flat patch of grass) to find Kori, Raven, and Jaime already waiting for them, Damian was relieved to hear the purpose of today's training assignment.

"Alright Terra, you've been with us for a month now. Outside of regular fitness training, we haven't brought you out on patrol or forced you to train with us if you didn't want to. But I believe now is a good time to see whether or not we can accept you as a Titan." Kori began. "We get called on to help put a stop to crime, not just in the city, but all over the world. Even the Justice League calls on us when they need extra help. And in order to help, we have to be ready for anything, which means we have to prepare for everything."

Kori nodded to herself, as though her speech had made sense. "Alright, let's start you off against an easy opponent. Damian, prepare yourself."

"Easy?!"

The others laughed, and Damian grumbled as he set his sword aside and readied his fists, stepping towards Terra. "Alright, listen for me to call the match. We don't want to push Terra too hard." Kori said. "Alright… Begin!"

Damian jumped and front-flipped immediately, and in the middle of his turn he saw that a hole had appeared where he'd been standing. _"Predictable…"_ As he came down, Terra raised her arms over his head and blocked his heel coming down on her head. He twisted and landed on his feet, bringing his hands up. Just as he was about to strike, he remembered Kori telling the others to take it easy, and slowed his strike just enough to give Terra a chance to react.

She did, stepping to the side and raising her right hand. The ground beneath him rumbled and he rose on a pillar of dirt. Just as he was about to jump, the pillar crumbled and he fell to the ground. A boulder came from the side as Terra waved her hand. He just barely saw it coming from his peripheral vision, and tucked into a ball. The boulder narrowly passed over his head.

As he uncurled, he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a couple of batarangs with small explosive charges on them. Not enough to cause serious injury (as long as they didn't go off near her head), but enough to stun her and knock her off balance. Damian planned on throwing them as soon as he touched the ground, but decided otherwise.

He noticed that Terra wasn't really moving, but was standing in one spot as she moved her arms to move and shape the ground. With a small smirk, he started sidestepping as Terra again tried to use pillars of earth to lift him into the air. With each dodge, he threw a batarang and pulled another out of his belt. Just as he expected, Terra ducked instead of matching him and stepping to the side.

After the sixth sidestep, he stopped suddenly and a raised a closed hand, turned to the side so his thumb was facing to the side instead of facing towards the ground. Terra, expecting him to throw another batarang, looked at him with a confused expression, faltering slightly.

"And the win goes to me." Damian said.

Terra was about to point out that he'd left himself open, but then Damian pressed his thumb to the space before the knuckle of his index finger. There was an audible _click!_ , and Terra's eyes widened in realization as she turned around to look behind her.

The batarangs Damian threw before had circled back and were beeping with a red light. They exploded two feet from her, and their combined shockwave caused Terra to stumble backwards. Rushing forward, Damian wrapped his arms around her waist and suplexed her into the ground behind him.

"Alright!" Kori said, flying forward to pull the two apart. "Very well fought, both of you." She knelt down and placed her hands on Terra's shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Terra groaned, but nodded.

"In the next battle, I recommend two things: not standing still, and keeping an eye on your surroundings." Damian offered, offering his hand so she could pull herself up.

Again, she glared at him, then shoved his hand away and stood on her own.

"Don't take it personally, Terra. This is only a training exercise." Kori reassured her. "If we let what happened here affect us outside of practice, none of us would get along. Okay Blue Beetle, you're up next."

Jaime scratched his head. "Uh… shouldn't we take a break? Terra isn't exactly used to this kind of stuff."

Kori put a finger to her chin before turning to Terra. "Well?"

"No need." She turned to Damian, smirking as she narrowed her eyes. "It usually takes more than one round with a guy before a girl is tired out anyways."

Beastboy and Jaime laughed while Raven rolled her eyes, and Kori said, "That's inappropriate."

"Well, I'm good to go again if you are." Damian growled. He grabbed his sword and unsheathed it.

"Oh, not again!" Jaime sighed, holding a hand to his head.

"Stay out of our way." Terra instructed. She raised her fists, and two boulders floated into the air beside her.

Kori jumped backwards as they began fighting.

This time, there was no contest. Terra threw both boulders at Damian, which he cut through like butter. Terra readied two more, but Damian had reached into his utility belt and thrown smoke bombs on the ground at Terra's feet. She dropped the boulders as her visibility was limited to just a few inches in front of her.

The others watching heard Terra cry out in pain. "Enough! Garfield!" Kori shouted.

Garfield turned into a pterodactyl and used his wings to fan away the smoke, where they saw Terra laying on the ground, tangled in the line from Damian's grappling gun and his sword pointed at her throat. "Well, are you satisfied now?"

Kori and Jaime flew forward, intending on stopping things before they escalated. Kori got between Damian and Terra, while Jaime cut the latter free.

Damian sheathed his sword, looking up to meet Kori's frown. "What?"

"That reaction wasn't necessary and you know it." She scolded.

"She started it!"

"What did I just say about not taking things personally?" Kori asked.

"You said not to take losing during training personally. I wasn't aware insulting my pride was something I wasn't supposed to take personally as well." Damian rolled his eyes and walked away.

So much for no discourse.

As he walked away, he heard Kori mutter something about men before turning her attention back to Terra. Damian went to stand beside Raven, who was frowning at him too. "Well, go ahead and say it."

"You know, everyone here is a virgin except for Kori, including you. You don't exactly have much pride to wound." She stated, looking over at the others.

"It doesn't matter if I'm a virgin, it's the principle of the matter. What would you do if Garfield said you-"

"Raven!" Kori yelled, cutting him before he could continue. "Could you come heal Terra please?"

She seemed to fly away faster than usual.

Damian sat down as he watched Raven use her magic, and Kori decided to have Garfield spar with Terra next.

Raven and Jaime walked back over, and Damian decided to wisely change the subject. "So, what did Terra's mind feel like to you?" He inquired. "Did you figure out why she seems to have it in for me?"

"What are you talking about?" Jaime asked, turning to Raven.

"Raven, she reads minds when she heals people." Damian said before Raven could speak. Her eyes widened and she looked down at Damian.

"You do?" Jaime asked her.

"No!" She denied immediately.

"What do you mean _no_?" Damian asked. "When I-"

"Damian." She cut him off quickly. "I _don't_ read minds when I heal people. All I do is heal them. That's it."

"Then…" His brow furrowed when he caught the look in her eyes.

" _We'll talk later."_

When Garfield and Terra finished their sparring match several minutes later, Jaime was glad that he could get away from the tension building between the two. He wasn't sure what he'd just stumbled into, but he was glad to be away from it.

~Opening Up~

It wasn't until after dinner that the two would get the chance the talk. Kori had continued the training session by having the others spar and allowing Terra to watch, and after that she made Damian and Terra apologize to each other. Damian hadn't been in the mood to do much more than shower and return to his room afterwards.

When Kori told the others that dinner had arrived, he exited his room and made his way to the dining room. When he caught sight of Raven, they made eye contact for a second before Raven looked away, seemingly ashamed. He decided not to let it show to the others that something was wrong, and ate his dinner like normal.

Which was slowly. He preferred to savour his food and not scarf it down, even if it was take-out (unhealthy food tasted just as good as the food he'd eaten at Wayne manor). That's the only reason he got his chance to talk to Raven alone. Not because she'd also deliberately eaten slowly, she ate at a normal pace, but tonight she'd been picking at her food, and Kori had picked up on it too, telling her to hurry or her food would get cold.

But as the others finished and left the room, the sounds of forks clinking against ceramic slowly stopped, and Damian put his fork down and looked over to Raven. She looked up as well, her face carefully neutral.

"Well?" Damian asked, standing up and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Look, if it's worth anything, I'm sorry." She said.

"I'm not upset." Damian told her.

Raven raised a brow in confusion. "You're... not?"

He shook his head. "Not really. If you recall, I was able to see into your mind, too. At least, a little bit." Damian shrugged. "So I'd consider us even. But I still want to know why you did it." 

"You know, when you first got here, you were… well, a jackass." A frown crossed her face. She didn't like swearing, even if it was the only to get her point across. "You didn't really talk to us unless you had to, and even then it was hard to get more than a couple of sentences out of you." She sighed. "But if _you_ recall, I'm an empath. And I could tell that you were upset, despite the front you were putting up. That's why I looked into your mind. I thought if I knew what was bothering you, I could help you."

Damian blinked. "You… read my mind so you could help me?" He asked. "Help me how?"

"That should be obvious, Damian. To help you be happy." She rolled her eyes, wondering how the son of the world's greatest detective could be so stupid. "Garfield is never upset for more than a minute, and Jaime is usually willing to talkwhen he's upset. Kori can call Dick whenever he's available, and even when he's not there for her she has other friends she can talk to, so she doesn't really come to me with her problems.

"But you were always on your own, fighting or training or going out on patrol…" She brought her arm up and rested her elbow on the table, sighing as she rested her head on her hand. "I thought it was the only thing I could do."

He swallowed, eyes flicking back and forth between hers across the table. He'd never been told that someone had done something to try and make him happy before, and he didn't know how to react. The closest situation this could be compared to was when his father sent him to the Himalaya's in order to get his head straightened out.

Raven raised a brow as he remained silent. "Damian?"

"Uh… no one's ever… done something like that for me before." He mumbled slowly, as though he was unsure of himself. "Tried to help, I mean. Usually, people decide what's best for me without asking." He looked away, running a hand through his hair.

Raven stood up and walked around the table to where he was standing, and before he could ask what she was doing or could react in any way, she pulled him into a hug, her arms wrapping around his chest gently. His arms stayed out awkwardly to the side. "What are you doing?" Damian asked her shoulder, since the heels she had on made her a few inches taller than him.

When Raven didn't pull away, he places his hands on her shoulders and looked to the side. "Damian." He awkwardly turned to look up at her, wondering why his face suddenly felt so warm. Her face was so close to his, and she was looking at him with concern evident in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for." He told her quietly.

Raven's arms tightened around him, and it looked as though she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't. She wanted to tell that she was sorry that he'd been shown so little compassion in his life, but she could also tell that he was already uncomfortable with the hug, and she didn't want to say something that would make things awkward between them.

A silence settled between them as Damian looked away again, but his arms moved and linked behind Raven's neck as he leaned into her embrace.

Despite the short lived duration of the hug, he was able to take in so many small details that being even an arms length away from her couldn't provide. There was the faint scent of strawberries coming from her- either from shampoo or perfume, he couldn't tell. She smelled nice either way. He could feel her light breathing tickling the side of his neck, and her fingers were spread out across his back, with the pads pressing gently into his shirt.

Aside from her hands, the way she felt was just... well, to put it another way, the only physical contact he was used to was attacking and getting hit in return, so her embrace left his chest feeling lighter and sent a curious tingle through him, extending from the tips of his fingers down to his toes. Raven was... soft, for lack of a better word. She felt toned from the mandatory fitness training and workouts, but not to the point of being muscular like Kori was.

And when she pulled away, he realized that she was also _warm_ ; he was barely able to repress a shiver when she let go and stepped back. He crossed his arms over his chest, the absence of Raven's weight leaving him feeling momentarily off balance. They made eye contact for a moment, and he felt his face heat up as she gave him a small smile.

Unsure what do or say next, he quickly blurted out, "It's late. I'm going to bed."

Just for a moment, Raven wondered if she'd upset him, but the thought vacated her mind when she felt a small amount of happiness beneath the uncertainty of his emotions.

When Raven nodded, he turned on his heel and left quickly, deciding that he'd wake up early and clean his spot in the morning.

The smile remained on her face as she watched him go, and she was unable to the suppress the thought that, _"He looks cute when he's embarrassed."_


	8. Pulling Back

A/N

Whoops, I meant to update this sooner, but oh well. I updated the description because as I re-read this fic to get back into the damirae mindset, I realized that this fic has kind of been about Raven helping Damian and Damian's mindset about the whole Titans situation changing. So yeah, let me know what you think, and if I should change it back to the old description.

~Opening Up~

Now that winter had truly come and settled in Jump City, the Titans were forced to spend most of their time training indoors. Well, more like 'everyone unanimously agreed not to go out into the cold when they had a perfectly good, state of the art holographic combat simulator that they could use to train with instead'. And so on one cloudy day, the Titans continued to train as per usual. Normally, they would do one on one sparring with the holograms, rotating who was fighting and allowing the observers to put forth constructive criticism about the fighters performance. Then two Titans would pair up, and the same thing would happen. The pairs were generally set by Kori, and it would often change between rounds. Sometimes one person would have to partner up with everyone, sometimes the pairs were completely random and only went one round, and sometimes the partners would be the only ones who fought. Training would normally conclude with the five Titans working together as a team against the holograms.

Terra unfortunately couldn't practice indoors with them, because generally throwing massive boulders around indoors around a bunch of sensitive equipment was not a good idea, and neither was piercing the walls and floor with columns and spikes of rock. So she idly sat to the side, watching in boredom as Kori issued orders and the others obeyed them. To work around this, she would normally train one on one with Kori outside, and had done so earlier while the rest of the Titans were going about their morning business.

"Good work, team!" Kori said as she descended to the ground. "Damian, I'm glad to see you're working better with Jaime. That last attack was especially impressive."

Jaime looked to Damian and nodded. Using the bug to shoot the explosive birdarangs while in mid flight _had_ been an effective attack. "Up top!" He raised his hand, but Damian just looked away, so Jaime gave him a thumbs up and said, "Nice one." Despite the many months and fights with the Titans, Damian still wasn't acting very friendly. He wasn't openly hostile to anyone anymore, and was at least willing to talk to people who tried to have a conversation with him… but it usually went nowhere and ended with Damian being left to his own devices.

"Yeah, who knew that Jaime shooting an explosive gadget would actually make it explode?" Terra said as she walked up to the edge of the simulation ring.

"At least Jaime has the chance to shoot it before it gets to him. That's more than anyone can say about you." Damian said with a scoff.

"Damian, Terra, knock it off. I swear, it's always something with you two." Kori quickly cut in. "If you won't get along of your own choosing, I'll _make_ you get along." It was definitely a threat, and everyone knew it.

Damian scoffed, looking at Terra. She didn't say anything, just crossed her arms.

Kori looked between them and sighed, shaking her head before saying in a much kinder tone, "Now, it's time for lunch. I was thinking we could go somewhere in the city instead of eating leftovers today." Kori put her hands on her hips and turned to the others.

Damian turned away from the others as they all started suggesting places to go, walking to the console and adjusting the program to be better suited for one person. He drew his sword and started swinging. It was normal for him to continue training on his own after everyone left, so he wasn't surprised when everyone left without him and the chamber quieted down.

"You know, you need to work on your sense of humour."

He turned around to see that Raven was still there. "My sense of humour is just fine, thank you." He responded, turning his attention back to the simulation.

"Clearly it's not. Terra was being sarcastic, and you took it seriously."

Damian could hear the frown in her voice, despite the fact that he was ducking and weaving between attacks. He jumped to the side and spun around, bringing his sword down on the hologram. "Aren't you going to get lunch with the others?" He asked casually, turning around and fighting through a few more of the projections.

She left the room, and Damian sighed. Ever since that night where she'd hugged him, he'd started feeling uncomfortable around her. It wasn't because he was afraid she'd hug him again, it was because he didn't know how to react to what she'd told him before the hug. He appreciated what she said and meant, he did, but he also… that was it, he didn't know what to say or do in response to _"To help you be happy."_ He wasn't unhappy. Maybe he wasn't in utter bliss living and fighting with the Titans, but he wasn't unhappy. He had something to do with his years of training, which was something he'd sorely missed while in the Himalayas.

So he'd responded to his uncertainty by putting some distance between himself and Raven. That didn't mean he was treating her poorly or coldly or avoiding her, but it meant that if he didn't have to be around Raven, then he wasn't. When he and Raven talked, he wasn't rude or curt, but he did find natural ways out of the conversation.

He sighed, focusing on the silence in the room save for his grunts as he swung at the holograms and the electric fizzling as they disappeared. For over an hour he continued training by himself, only stopping to pick up birdarangs that he'd thrown that had ended up strewn over the floor. It took a long time for the simulation to wear him out; since the light based projections weren't solid, there was nothing to actually hit, nor could he get hit back, and even on the hardest settings it was never as hard as fighting even one of the other Titans or criminals in the city.

His phone beeped, and he jumped off of the simulation platform, which caused it to shut down since it could sense no one was on it. He looked down at his phone to see that Raven had texted him: _"We brought some food back for you, do you want me to put it in the fridge or are you going to come get it?"_

Putting his sword back in its sheathe he texted back, _"I'll come get it."_ Getting in the elevator and riding up to the kitchen, he pulled his mask off and put it away. "What's this?" He asked when he saw that Raven was in the kitchen, pointing to the food in the bag.

"Burger and fries, from a place on fifth avenue." Raven said, lifting her milkshake up and taking a drink from it.

Damian unwrapped his burger after pulling it out, and held up the bag in one hand. "Want the fries? They're not good for you."

"So how come you're offering them to me?" Raven asked with a smile.

"Because you don't seem to care about what you eat." Damian said, lowering his hand when Raven pulled the bag away from him.

"Yeah well, growing up in Hell will do that to you." She pulled the fries out of the bag, grabbing a plate and dumping them on it.

"Is that why you've got a sweet tooth, too?" He pointed to her milkshake.

"Mmmmm-hmmmm." She said, sucking up the half melted treat through the straw. "You had it better than ever I did. Everything in Hell tasted like dirt. Or blood. It was gross."

Damian snorted. "I'll bet. Wait, didn't you grow up in Azarath before you were kidnapped by your father?"

"I don't have very many memories of it. I was still young." She said, frowning as she looked at her plate. "I don't remember what I ate there, at any rate."

A silence settled between them as they ate, and Damian kept his eyes locked on his food. He knew that she didn't want to talk about it, so he didn't feel the need to pry. Besides, if they started talking, he wasn't sure where the conversation would end up at. He was just going to finish his food and make his way back to the simulation room.

"So how come you've been avoiding me lately?"

Damian glanced over at her, taking in her casual stance. She didn't sound angry or upset or accusatory, so he took a moment to finish his food before he answered. "I haven't been avoiding you. We're talking now. And we talked yesterday, and the day before."

"That's true." Raven agreed. "But I've noticed this-" She gestured to him, "-weird feeling from you lately. I'm feeling it now, too. That, and the feeling that…like...hmm." She paused, looking up at the ceiling as she tried to think. "Like you _want_ to be away from me. So what's up?"

" _Oh right, she's an empath. Of course she would feel it, even if I was pretending to be normal around her."_ Damian felt like smacking himself. For some reason, he was always forgetting that Raven was an empath. He assumed it was because unlike Jaime's beetle or Gar's green skin, her empathic abilities couldn't be noticed by anyone other than her, and she didn't go around pointing out that she was feeling other people's state of mind. He cleared his throat, trying to calm himself and mask his emotions so Raven couldn't read him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Raven sighed. "If this is about me hugging you, then I'm sorry. I didn't know it would make this uncomfortable."

"It wasn't the hug." Damian said quickly. "The hug was nice."

"So it _was_ something?" Raven asked, raising her brow at him. Damian cursed at himself for slipping. "Are you not really okay with me looking into your mind?"

"I thought I told you I wasn't upset with you over that." He responded.

"Okay, then are you going to tell me what the deal is?"

Damian sighed, debating whether or not he should talk to her and then trying to think of what he should say. "What does 'making me happy' mean, Raven?" He finally asked after a moment of silence.

Raven looked confused, her brow knitting together. "What do you mean?"

"That's what you said before. You said, 'I read your mind to help you be happy'. What does that mean?" He asked again.

"Do you really need me to spell it out for you, Damian? It means…" She walked over to him, "...I want you to feel at ease around us. Relaxed." She put her hands on his shoulders, forcing the tension out of them. "You need to get a massage or something, honestly." She said under her breath. "I want you to come to lunch with us instead of practicing fighting. I want you to high five Jaime or laugh at Gar's jokes or sit with Kori and talk without feeling like you were _forced_ to do so. When I came here after trapping my father, everyone did so much in helping me acclimate and feel like I was part of a real family, with friends to talk to. I knew they could do that for you, but you weren't letting them." She sighed. "It's like you said, no one's ever done something to make you happy before, so I wanted to try because that's what everyone else did for me."

"Why does my happiness mean that much to you?" He asked, keeping his eyes down.

"It matters to me because I was in your position once, trying to keep everyone out after everything I'd gone through. Do you remember that night at the carnival, when I told you that you were a kind and generous soul?" Raven asked. "That's the Damian I want to see. Not Damian al Ghul, not Damian Wayne, not Robin, just Damian. And I know he's buried in there somewhere, beneath all the lies and manipulation and confusion and everything else that's happened to you." She lowered her hand until it settled beneath his cape on his back. "And when I get glimpses of the real you, it's nice. It makes me wish you were like that all the time."

"The real me?" Damian turned his head so he was looking at her from the corner his eye.

"Yeah. Things like convincing me that my home is here, giving me your cape when I'm cold, sneaking out of scary movies with me, telling Gar not to bother me when I'm meditating, that's what I'm talking about. Those moments when you do something good, without expecting anything in return." She exhaled slowly, wondering whether she should say her next thoughts or not. "No one wants to be unhappy Damian, not even you. But you're so used to being let down by everyone that you aren't letting anyone help you because you're afraid it'll happen again, and you're just stuck in this feeling of resignation that things will go wrong like before. But when you're not feeling that way, it shows who you truly are."

Damian looked away, trying not to focus on the feeling of her hand on his back. Everything Raven had said to him caused emotion after emotion to roll through him; apprehension, confusion, fear, denial, anger. He instinctively wanted to deny everything she'd just said, but when that feeling was gone he knew she was right. Ra's al Ghul had kept him isolated from the world, grooming him to be a leader of a group of powerful people. That had fallen through, and as a result he'd ended up with his father. His father had put him into the role of Robin because he didn't know how to be a father, and in fact he still hadn't legally claimed Damian as his own son. Then he'd been put on a team that he wanted no part of because he'd chosen to make a decision for himself, rather than act like an obedient soldier.

It was like he wasn't allowed to choose who he was supposed to be. Someone else was always making that decision for him. Even after all this time, he still didn't know he was; going to the Himalayas hadn't done anything for him. Damian al Ghul was dead, Damian Wayne didn't exist, and Robin was easily replaced. He stood up, stepping away from Raven and shaking his head. "I'm going to choose who I am, not anyone else. Whether you think I'm happy or not, or if you think I'm hiding my 'true self' won't have anything to do with it."

He turned and left, walking away quickly and ignoring Kori in the hallway, taking the stairs down to the garage and pulling his mask on, he got on Dick's bike and started heading into the city. He needed to clear his head, and he couldn't do that if he was at the Tower.


	9. Distance

A/N

So before you ask in reviews, this is not quite in the Judas Contract timespace yet, but we're getting there soon. I will let you know when we've gotten to the movie. I will also let you know ahead of time that I do not plan to novelize the movie, only a few scenes from the movie will be in here before we move on. Also, sorry if this chapter seems a bit short or rushed, but I needed to put this here in order to prevent a pacing issue. Luckily for all of you, I have most of the next chapter already written, so you won't have to wait very long to get another chapter.

And now, we will move onto the story!

~Opening Up~

Raven didn't see or hear from Damian for three days after he left.

Naturally, it had the effect of not going unnoticed by the rest of the team, because it was on day three when Jaime knocked on Raven's door and asked, "You have any idea where Damian's been?"

Her first instinct was to frown as she remembered the way Damian had recoiled from her the last time they'd talked, but then her expression eased as she shook her head. "No, I haven't seen him around lately."

"Me neither." Jaime said. "Which is why I was asking you. You're the closest person to him, so I figured if Kori didn't know, you would."

Deciding that Jaime didn't need to know exactly why Damian had been missing for so long, she said, "Well, I'm sure he's been out on patrol, or something. He and I have been going after a crime ring that's been moving contraband through Jump City, so he's probably working on that." It wasn't a complete lie. She and Damian had been stopping petty criminals and intercepting weapons shipments, but she herself hadn't been out on patrol in almost a month. Damian left nearly every day, or every night, depending on the latest intel. "You could always try texting him." She suggested.

Jaime pulled out his phone and held it up. _"Yo when r u gonna be back"_ was left read at 9:32 a.m. that morning. "He's not answering."

"I guess he'd rather be on his own." Raven said with a shrug. "You know how he is."

"Yeah, but tonight's 'mandatory fun' night. Gar's been looking forward to stomping him in the tournament we've got planned!" He exclaimed. The tournament was a game tournament that he and Garfield had set up a month in advance, and they'd even gone so far as to help others train by practicing with them in order to make sure everyone was prepared. It had been especially amusing to see Kori struggling to pick the game up, but Raven hadn't fared too bad herself.

Raven stepped into the hall, closing her door behind her as she did so, and began walking to the elevator. "I think we're all allowed to skip one or two of these nights." Raven said, trying to move past the topic. She knew that Damian didn't enjoy these nights in the first place, not unless there was some sort of competitive element where he could show off and 'prove his superiority' as he had put it once before. A video game tournament might've been right up Damian's alley, but with recent events going on…

"Well, will you try texting him anyways? I get the feeling he'll respond to you." He pleaded, clasping his hands together in front of him.

Raven frowned at his idea, then sighed and rolled her eyes as she pulled her phone out. She had no real reason to deny Jaime's request, and besides, she was starting to wonder when Damian would be back as well. _"Are you going to come home today?"_ She texted, and Jaime looked over her shoulder as they stepped into the elevator and went up a few floors. To her surprise the message was read a few seconds after it was sent, but like she expected, there wasn't a response. "I guess he's doing his own thing." Raven said as she and Jaime stepped out of the elevator when it reached the training room floor.

"Hmph. I wonder if he got into a fight with Terra or something." Jaime mumbled. "He's never acted like this before." He'd long gotten used to Damian being distant, but just straight up ignoring people was something that hadn't happened yet.

"It wasn't that." Raven said, the words slipping out before she really thought about what she was saying.

"So what happened?" Jaime asked as a natural response, tilting his head as he turned towards Raven's.

" _Go ahead and tell him how you pushed your friend away, daughter. It'll be fun to see him get upset with you."_

Raven rolled her eyes; Trigon's complaining and attempting to twist every little thing that happened had gotten old real fast, and there was only real solution to the problem. "I don't know." Raven answered his question, then continued before he could say anything else with, "I need to meditate. Dad's making it hard to focus."

"Alright. Later." Jaime said with a wave, turning and leaving. He knew better than to try and make Raven talk when she didn't want to, and that had only become doubly true after she'd bound the gem her father was contained in to her. Once Raven said she needed to meditate, it was best to leave her to it.

~Opening Up~

" _Foolishness. I thought I had raised you to be stronger than this. All those years training you to be as ruthless as I, and you're still just as weak as when I took you in. Absolutely pathetic. I am ashamed to call you my child."_

"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…" It never took more than at most a few hours to center herself and shut out Trigon for the rest of the day, which was why she usually meditated first thing after breakfast. Years of practicing on Azarath combined with the strengthening of her skills she'd picked up in Hell made the task easier than it would've otherwise been. The silver lining to being kidnapped, it seemed. On most days, it took only an hour to shut out her father's annoying voice, on bad days it took a few hours, but these past three days she'd been meditating much longer than normal. Her father knew that she cared for Damian, and even as strong as she was, it was hard not to let his words get to her. It didn't help that even when she couldn't hear her father, she was thinking about him.

" _Or maybe you're more like me than I thought… Maybe you're just upset that the mortal resisted your pretty words and you can't control him. Ha! Damaged souls like his are not so easily twisted. I thought I had taught you as much."_

"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…" An hour into this session, and her father's voice was still as clear and loud as lightning and thunder.

~Opening Up~

"Alright!" Garfield rubbed his hands together as he finished setting up the game console, "Where's Damian? We can't start without him!" He asked as he looked around.

Jaime picked up his controller and started idly pressing buttons. "He's probably not gonna show tonight."

"But we need him to make the brackets even! It's me against him, you against Terra, and Raven against Kori!" Garfield explained.

"Then perhaps you should count me out and challenge Raven instead. I haven't gotten any better at this video game since you set this up." Kori said, sounding uncharacteristically meek. Who knew that the leader of the Titans would be embarrassed by being bad at a video game? "I'll try calling Damian. He should be here." She informed everyone, pulling out her phone and waving her hand for them to continue on without her.

Raven tensed slightly in anticipation. There was a solid ninety five percent chance the call would be ignored, but on the five percent chance it wasn't…

"Damian! Where have you been?" Kori glanced at the others as they all turned to her. "Well, you should've told me that you were going out on patrol… Yes, I figured that's where you were, but if I needed you here… For mandatory fun night, of course. Did you forget?... Then why aren't you here?" Kori frowned. "Are you sure you won't need any help?... Alright, fair enough. We'll see you when you get back." She hung up and cleared her throat. "Damian's about to get into a fight, so he'll be gone for the evening. Looks like you'll have to play without me." It didn't escape anyone's notice that she sound incredibly relieved.

Raven sighed, ignoring Garfield's taunting while she picked up her controller. It sounded like Damian would be back tonight, and she needed to think of what she was going to say when she saw him.

~Opening Up~

Hours later, after several dozen rounds of gaming, the others had all turned in, but Raven had elected to stay up with Kori to see Damian under the pretense of healing any potential injuries he may have gotten. They sat together on the couch in the common room, a mug of tea in Raven's hand as the idle flickering of the TV went mostly ignored by both of them. They remained in a comfortable silence until Kori spoke quietly, "You seem preoccupied, Raven. Please, tell me what bothers you."

Setting the mug down, Raven took a deep breath, keeping her eyes on the ground. "It's Damian." She admitted.

"I see. Have you two had a fight?" Kori asked, her voice devoid of any judgement and completely earnest.

"No. I mean, _I_ don't think it was…" She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I don't know if it's my place to tell you about him, but I've… It's…" She trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Dick has told me much about Damian. How he was raised by assassins, then taken in by the Batman. I know that you and I can empathize with rough upbringings." Kori said gently. "He was raised to be a killer, then taken in and treated like a soldier. His life hasn't been easy, and so he will not be easy to deal with, either."

"I know. Ever since he's joined us, I've tried reaching out to him, tried to tell him that there was more to him than a fighter, and when I did he…" She gestured into the nothingness around them, "... left. He's ignoring us, but the thing that's bothering me is… I understand why he's doing it." Raven leaned back into the couch and looked at the ceiling. "He wants to find his own path, and I agree with him that it's necessary for him, but I…"

"Sometimes the only thing we can do is give people their distance." Kori said. "Even if it pains us. When Dick was trying to build a life for himself away from his old mentor, I often felt like you do now; wishing I could help, but unsure what I should do. If there is one piece of advice I can give you: When there is distance between you and a friend, sometimes it is better to focus on yourself instead of the other person. We have a duty to ourselves as much as we do to the people we're close to."

Raven looked at Kori, nodding slowly after a moment.

The door to the common room opened, and Damian stepped through. There were several tears in his costume, and even in the low light Raven could see where the bloodstains on his uniform were. His hair was messy, and he looked like he hadn't had a shower since he left the Tower. Raven rose to her feet immediately, and Kori followed suit. Damian walked across the room, looking at them both. "I'm back." Was all he said as he stopped a few feet away from them.

"Do you have any injuries you need me to heal?" Raven asked.

"No. I can patch up the wounds I've got." Damian answered.

Raven swallowed the lump in her throat, then asked slowly, "Are you sure?"

Damian only nodded in response. "Do you need my report?" He asked Kori. If he didn't sound so tired, it might've sounded rude.

Luckily Kori picked up on that and shook her head. "You can give it to me in the morning. Go get some rest, both of you." She turned around picked up the remote, turning off the TV.

Raven and Damian left the room, getting in the elevator together. A silence settled over them, but Raven resisted the temptation to ask Damian about the past few days. Kori was right; she couldn't afford to spend every moment worrying about him and what he did. He could look after himself… maybe not emotionally, but after talking with Kori, she figured that it was best to let him sort him sort out his own emotions. When they got out of the elevator, Raven walked to her room, sparing a glance at Damian before she opened her door.

He didn't look back at her, stepping inside his room and closing the door immediately.


	10. A Piece of the Puzzle

Damian's eyes snapped open, and he immediately jumped up out of his bed, making his way to his door. The entire Tower was shaking. Stumbling into the hall, he made eye contact with Jaime, Raven, and Garfield as they all left their rooms as well. Raven floated in the air along with Jaime, while Garfield had changed into a bird. Damian kept one hand against the wall as they all rushed through the Tower, making their way downstairs to Terra's room.

"Terra!" Everyone shouted as soon as they burst into her room. A collection of 'wake up!' and 'you're having a bad dream!' and 'it's alright!' came from the four of them, and Garfield placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to hold her still as she thrashed about in her bed, hands glowing yellow and a silent scream escaping her. "Terra, you're safe!" Garfield's voice was raised to just shy of a shout. "Wake up, please!" He kept his hands on her shoulders, gripping her tightly.

Her eyes snapped open and Terra quickly sat up, pushing back into the headboard of her bed, pushing her blankets away with her feet. She was breathing heavily, and she raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow. "Get out of my room." She said quietly after looking up at everyone and saw that they were all staring at her. When no one moved, she clenched her fists and stood up. "I said get out of my room!" She shouted and the Tower shook again, just for two seconds.

Everyone tensed, then they all turned and left without another word. Garfield stayed behind for a second longer than the rest before he left and rejoined the others in the hall. When they closed Terra's door, they saw that Kori was running down the hall to meet them. "It happened again?" She asked, receiving a nod from the group. "How is she now?"

"She doesn't want to talk. Like usual." Raven filled her in.

Kori sighed. "Great… You four go on, I'm gonna try to talk to her anyways." She turned and knocked on the door, gently calling out to Terra.

Since none of the other four were keen on being the cause of another earthquake, they all turned and headed back upstairs. But when they all got to their respective doors, they all looked at each other and then in unison started down the hall to the common room. Jaime shook his head and snorted. "You missed the first two, Damian. How was it?"

" _I'm glad I was out on patrol for the first two."_ Damian took a deep breath and sighed. "Annoying. She had better get over whatever trauma she has, because if she brings down Titans Tower because of a bad dream…" He flicked on the lights to the common room, and was met with a frown from the other three. "What?"

"You shouldn't talk about her like that. You don't know what's she's been through." Garfield said defensively.

"No, I don't. However I do know that we've ALL been through some tough times, but unlike Terra we don't have the power to cause tsunamis and earthquakes just because we're emotional." Damian shot back. "If she loses control of her powers, then she needs to be taken somewhere where losing control won't cause a hundred million in damages and pose a threat to an entire city."

"Can we not argue? Please?" Raven asked with a sigh, stepping between the two and raising her hands, cutting off Garfield's response. "Let's just watch TV or put on a movie or something. I'll make us some tea." She continued on to the small kitchen, grabbing the teapot and filling it with water. Setting it on the stove to boil, she crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. She looked at the ceiling and closer her eyes, letting out a sigh. But when she felt someone watching her she opened her eyes and looked back down. "What?"

"I want to know what you think." Damian asked, his voice quiet and his hands in his pockets.

She took a moment to think before she responded. "She hasn't lost control of her powers while she's been awake." Raven said slowly. "And this is far from a common occurrence."

"You _saw_ the way she was." Damian pointed out. "Even I could tell it that it wasn't just a nightmare, it was like she was reliving some painful memory. Common occurrence or not, it _has_ happened before and it'll happen again."

"What's your point?" Raven asked sharply. "We're not gonna kick her out."

"She won't talk to us." Damian replied.

"So?"

"So if she won't talk to us, and she can't control herself, what are we supposed to do?" He asked.

"Nothing. We can't make her talk to us about her past. We can't send her off somewhere every night out of fear. All we can do is be there for her. Well, we'll be." She gestured to herself and pointed past Damian, into the other room where Jaime and Garfield could be heard discussing what they should watch. "You're barely around anymore, so I don't see how what goes on with Terra concerns you."

"Because I'm still a part of this team, that's why." Damian crossed his arms over his chest. "Why don't you read her mind, and figure out what's wrong with her? As long as you close your mind off so she can't see into yours-"

"I'm not going to do that." Raven cut him off. "If Terra doesn't want help, then why don't you go and not talk about your problems together?" She muttered.

"I-...What?" Damian asked as he looked at her in confusion.

"I don't know. I'm tired. I don't want to argue this early in the morning." Raven said quietly. "You don't want to talk, she doesn't want to talk…" Raven shook her head, and looked down at the ground. When Kori had said to give Damian his distance, Raven had tried, but she hadn't expected it to be so difficult. Of course, whenever she was around Damian, he'd be curt and… distant from her. She didn't know why she cared so much, but now she was starting to understand what Kori had meant when she said it was better to focus on herself.

Damian shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He knew what Raven was talking about; ever since that conversation during lunch he'd pretty much been living outside of the Tower for the past couple of months, only returning when he was ordered to or when he needed sleep or a change of clothes, or in the rare event he needed medical attention. He'd meant what he said about not letting anyone choose who he was for him, and the easiest way to insure that was for him to be alone. So he'd continued following up on the crime ring he'd been chasing after and stopping random criminals he'd come across. But unfortunately all this time alone and he didn't feel any closer to figuring it out.

"There's not really anything to talk about, is there? You know where I go and what I do." Damian said quietly, glancing over at her.

Raven's eyes lifted to meet his. "I don't know where you go other than 'the city', which really narrows it down by the way, because _you don't talk_ to us. And that's not the point."

"Then what is the point?" Damian asked.

Raven shook her head. Kori's advice from before went ignored as she said, "The point is for you to be here, as a friend and a teammate. Maybe Batman didn't send you here to make friends, but he did send you here to help you learn how to get along with others. You can't do that if you're alone, can you?" Raven turned the burner off as the water started boiling. "Maybe you don't realize this, but the easiest way out of here is for you to get along with us so Batman comes and takes you back." Regret filled her as she looked away from Damian. She walked over to the cabinet and pulled out three mugs and set them out on the counter.

Damian shook his head, muttering something under his breath.

"What was that?" She asked as she spun around to face him.

"Nothing." Damian looked down and saw that there were only three mugs, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm going out." He turned and went back to his room, grabbing some fresh clothes so he could shower. As the hot water rained down on him, he felt himself waking up and blamed his earlier comment on fatigue. _"I don't want to go back to Batman."_ He'd said it without hesitation and in complete honesty, and he didn't regret the statement at all. Damian knew that if he went back to Gotham things _might be_ less difficult between himself and his father for a little while, but deep down he knew that they'd inevitably end up fighting again. And he was tired of fighting everyone around him every step of the way.

Fighting with Batman about his role in their partnership didn't interest him. He didn't have any interest in going back to Gotham only to be told during and after every single fight what to do and how to act, and then where he was allowed to go and then how to behave when he wasn't being Robin.

He hadn't thought of Batman, either as his father or his partner, in a long time, not since a short time after defeating Trigon and saving the Justice League and the world. Shutting off the water, he sighed as he realized his dad hadn't sent so much as a single text message after the ordeal. Drying himself off and quickly returning back to his room, he put on his Robin uniform and went to the elevator, heading down to the garage and getting on Dick's bike. At the very least, he was appreciative of the fact that Dick had given his explicit permission that as long as Damian didn't destroy the bike, he was allowed to use it to go out on patrol, but not for leisure since he still didn't have a license of any kind.

Since he didn't go anywhere for leisure, that last bit didn't concern him, so he didn't know what Dick was thinking when he said that.

"Yo Damian, wait up man!" He was halfway across the bridge into Jump City before he heard Jaime calling out to him. Damian slowed to a stop, looking up to see Jaime flying down to meet him, still in a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. "Come back to the tower dude, it's freezing out." He was already shivering, and he crossed his arms across his chest and folded his hands against his sides.

"That's not gonna stop the criminals out there. Besides, the cold doesn't bother me." Damian responded with a shrug.

Jaime let out a loud sigh. "Look, I know we're more like... _acquaintances_ than friends, and it's not my place to tell you your business, but…" He looked behind Damian back up to the Tower. "Raven _does_ think of you as a friend, and whatever is going on between you two has got her upset."

"Nothing's going on between us." Damian cut in quickly.

"Well something happened. You've been gone way more than usual lately, and whenever you're around Raven it's like there's a weird tension between you two." Electronic beeping cut in. "The bug thinks so too."

"Nothing's. Happened." Damian said again. _"Just because I refused Raven's help…"_

"Hey, I'm not going to make you have a heart to heart with me. But I've been around Raven long enough to know when she's upset. And honestly, Raven isn't the kind of person to get upset. You know her; she'd much rather try and find a solution quickly instead of letting things get worse over time. I mean sometimes it doesn't always work out, like when she first imprisoned Trigon…" Jaime shook his head, "...But it's not that easy when there's people involved. Spending all that time in Hell didn't really help her build social skills, you know?" Jaime paused. "And you're not exactly easy to get along with." He felt the need to point it out since Damian still didn't seem aware of that fact. "Man, regardless of what we are, I want Raven to be happy. You guys are my family, and family should get along."

" _Family, huh?"_ Damian let out a quiet 'hmph' and looked away. _"I wouldn't know anything about that... But I don't want to have a falling out with Raven."_ He admitted to himself, letting his shoulders slump. _"I know that she's been through enough and she shouldn't have to go through that because of me."_ Damian reached up and pulled his mask off. "Go on back. I'll be there in a few minutes." He gestured to the Tower.

"Alright." Jaime nodded. "Don't need to tell me twice." He gave Damian a short wave and then flew away, heading back to the warmth of the Tower.

Turning the bike around, Damian wondered what he was going to say when he saw Raven. Sorry was definitely a start. Sorry for… putting space between them and avoiding her. Sorry for being a bad friend, and for being insufferable and being on his own all the time. Parking the bike and getting in the elevator, he shook his head. Those were things she wanted to hear and he knew it. And he hated it when people told him what _he_ wanted to hear without meaning what they said, so he might as well treat Raven the way he wanted to be treated. Unfortunately, he made it all the way back up to the common room and still had no idea what he was going to tell her. And so, walking past the couch where he saw Jaime, Garfield, and Raven, he pointed to the kitchen and asked, "Is there still water for the tea?" Because it was the first thing to come to mind.

Raven turned around and nodded once before looking back to the TV.

Heading into the kitchen, he grabbed a clean mug from the cabinet and went over to the stove, pouring some water into his cup and preparing his tea.

"There should be some brown sugar in the cabinet above the stove."

Damian turned around to see that Raven had followed him into the kitchen. "I know that." He paused. "But thanks."

"You're welcome." Raven grabbed a spoon and handed it to him. Before they could lapse into a silence she felt the need to ask, "What did Jaime say to you?" She'd tried getting him to stay behind and let Damian do his own thing, but apparently Jaime had been just as fed up as she was with Damian's constant absence… which was weird, because she hadn't thought that Jaime cared about Damian all that much. And in all honesty, she expected him to make things worse, not better, yet here Damian was.

"He said that we're his family, and that we should get along." Damian told her. "And that he thinks we should put whatever is going on with us, behind us."

Raven remained quiet while Damian stared into his drink. "Well, that's mostly up to you, isn't it?" She took a step forward and kept her voice low, aware that Jaime and Gar were in the other room.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. You know…" He frowned at his drink, keeping his gaze low. "I like the freedom I have here. It was something I never had back in Gotham. Father never let me go out during the day, and I was never allowed to go out on patrol on my own." He exhaled, closing his eyes. "I'd rather stay here than go back." He admitted. "And without the- the... whatever happened with you and me, I don't think I would've realized that. So thank you." He didn't want to say they'd had a fight, because really, they hadn't. A disagreement maybe, but not a fight. But even that didn't feel totally accurate, either.

"You're welcome." Raven said. She took another step forward and leaned against the counter beside him. "Anything else? About yourself, I mean."

Damian shook his head and took a sip from his mug. "No. But I didn't think I'd figure it all out in a couple of months, anyways." He looked up so he could meet her eye and said, "Sorry for giving you the cold shoulder treatment lately. You didn't deserve it."

"You're forgiven." She said with a nod. Raven hesitated, but thought to herself, _"I should've known trying to help him so overtly would've backfired… But I guess it did end up helping him either way."_ As a silence settled over them, Raven glanced down and then snorted lightly.

"What?" Damian looked down as well, not sure what she was looking at.

"You're in your uniform. I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say you sleep in it." Raven informed him.

He shrugged. "Sometimes. Just depends." He knew that Raven had been trying to get him to wear casual clothes more often, but it still wasn't easy for him when he just felt more comfortable like this than he did with normal clothes.

Raven smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well, go put on something else and come sit with us. We're watching Wall-E."

"What's that?" Damian asked as he lifted his mug to take another sip.

"Oh my god. Go, get some normal clothes on." She lightly shoved him out of the kitchen. "I can't believe you don't know what Wall-E is." She mumbled.

"It's not my fault!" He tried to reason with her.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is! You're gonna watch it now!" She said with a final playful shove towards the hallway.

Damian quickened his pace as he headed to his room. After throwing his uniform off and putting on a pair of shorts and a gray shirt, he made his way back to the common room and sat down next to Raven. He gave Jaime a quick nod; the realization was only dawning on him now, but if Jaime hadn't said anything to him earlier things might still be tense between him and the rest of the team. He made a mental note to find some subtle way to thank him later.

"We don't really have to start the movie over, do we?" Garfield asked as Raven picked up the DVD remote.

Raven nodded without looking at the changeling. "Damian's never seen this before, so…"

"Oh, what?"

"Are you for real?"

Frowning at the others, he shrugged. "What's the big deal?"

"You're about to find out!" Garfield exclaimed. "This is a great movie!"


End file.
